Well, after a longer haitus than usual, we're back! This is a long, long story by an author many of us have enjoyed for years. Have you read this classic story? It's a go to favorite of mine when I'm looking for that apocalyptic style OMG WHAAAAT story, even though I know exactly what's going to happen, I still love it. Give it a try, especially if you love a LONG read!
Length: 175,313
Description: Facing a life-changing medical procedure, 14 year old Shay approaches it with the
Picture this...
It's a stunning Sunday afternoon in Eureka. Wayne has prepped three expensive but great-looking steaks. He's planning to grill, you see, and take advantage of the glorious sun. Along with that, he tosses three foil-wrapped potatoes into the oven, awaiting the hour of their ultimate fate.
Wayne happily preps everything. The steaks are seasoned with instant coffee, sea salt, and coconut rub (for sweetness). He sets them aside and prepares portobellos to grill with the ste
Is The Christian God Of The Bible Moral?
Part Six: The Punishment of David
An InDepth Look At Morality From An Atheist Perspective
Written By: Jason Rimbaud
Most of us have heard the story about David besting the giant Goliath with just a sling. How, when he was still a young boy, was anointed to be the second King of Israel. He wrote numerous psalms, left his kingdom to his son, Solomon, who was reputed to be the wisest person who ever lived.
Did you also know he made a
‘Have you considered my servant, Job?’
Thus starts one of the most diabolical stories I was told as a child.
This story can be found in Job, Chapter One, and goes painfully on for 41 more chapters. We are only going to focus on the first two or three and the final chapter, as the middle part is multiple people trying to get Job to curse god. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Job 1:1, In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; h
I'm about to post a new complete story again. I've already posted omegaverse and guideverse fics, both 60k words each. To finish off I'm now going to post a 20 chapter cakeverse fic that will also be 60k words. This fic was inspired by Jane Austen, I read all her works, so this will be a regency era gay romance posted soon!
In the Quiet After
After the sirens fade,
A heavy silence fills the air,
For those who stood when duty called
And gave a life of courage there.
There was no promise of return,
Only the weight of what must be done,
Stepping forward at the hardest hour
While others turned away to run.
Now their badges rest, and flags are still,
Their names are spoken soft and clear,
Not only carved in grief and stone,
Remembered now and coming years.
Their homes now are foreve
I've been faithfully working out and using a new program for about four months now. This program is from the "Average to Jacked" guy on YouTube (look him up - he's pleasant to look at). And I can boil down his entire mindset/training principle to two words: Progressive Overload.
In this program, Progressive Overload is integral to the body's adaptation. If you always lift the same amount of weight the same amount of time, you won't progress. But if you push just a little more every time, yo
This story is weird...not sure in a good or bad way.
The premise is simple-
It's a Deuteragonist plot.
My first protagonist is Prince Zhu Cilang, the last crown prince of the Ming Dynasty (1629-1644), he mysteriously disappeared after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, most likely murdered by either rebel troops or under the orders of Manchurian (invading Qing forces), who had occupied Beijing. He's a fascinating figure in Chinese history akin to the legendary French Dauphin of Louis
I'm jumping in here to create a character list for my story, Blades of Ashes (BOA). It's turned into a bit of an epic project, which was unexpected, but I'll keep going. I should add this character list to help track everyone from each arc.
BOA is written in arcs, with a different case developing in each arc. Characters may drop off and return as each arc develops; others may only appear in a particular arc to serve the purpose of the case and never appear again. It's a quest, hehehe. The m
Yep, i'm here again. ***WARNINGS for suicide and depression***
Last year, before Danny died, I tried to take my own life. Again, 4th attempt. Nearly made it as well, but Dan noticed I was not in bed and found me and a bloody mess on the bathroom floor. He bound the wounds and called 911. Then he woke Michael. I think Michael wrote a blog about this too.
Anyway. My (is it mine? i always laugh about this) depression was out of control. It was after recovery from this suicide attempt tha
Still working on cleaning the damage I did to our site. All previous entries of this blog before May 2026 (1700 +) are being deleted, I still have 635 to do. It boggles my mind that the 1,700 entries, at about 2 hrs for each, equals about 3,400 hours of time/work since July of 2021. When I screw up, I really screw up big time.
Sorry,
sandrewn
May 1st 2026 - Holidays and Observances
(click on the day for details)
Christian feast day:
Aldebrandus
Amator
Andeolus
Aredius of Gap
Asaph
Augustin Schoeffler, Jean-Louis Bonnard (part of Vietnamese Martyrs)
Benedict of Szkalka
Bertha of Val d'Or
Brioc
James the Less (Anglican Communion)
Jeremiah
Joseph the Worker (Roman
Over & Under , A1
(A Ben's Bumblings Blog)
I have around 1/3rd of the way to go in terms of completing my first (non-collab) multichapter story (and many thanks to @chris191070 for the multi-chapter collaborations, as I gained more practice with getting more than one chapter out at a time through them. Not to mention they were great fun to work on together). I've said it before and I'll say it again, my passion project took a village. You'll see just how many amazing folks had a ha
Who am i? It’s a question i think we all ask from time to time. i've been asking that a lot recently. i’m doing some work on myself, talking with a therapist almost weekly and it’s been a really good thing.
Except.
i'm discovering that i’m not who i thought i was.
Kind of.
i’ve discovered that i really am “good enough” and that “good enough” isn’t “average” or “meh” in the way that it was in my head. “Good enough” always had a negative connotation. But it’s not really a negat
I went to Kentucky. My brother's funeral was on Saturday, and I needed to be there for a number of reasons.
Chief among them was my mother. She needed support. She needed to know she wasn't alone. She needed to know that Adam mattered.
So I went.
My sister and I met with Mom the morning before the funeral. It was scheduled for 10 AM, and we sat at her house with her for a couple of hours before heading to the funeral home.
About a half hour before it was time to go, she looke
You ever ask yourself that question?
I have been, often over the past few years. Who am I? Better would who the hell do you think you are? For many reasons, at many times.
Maybe it's time to look at that honestly.
Yeah, maybe it is.
I got a call from my sister this morning.
"Bub, they found Adam unresponsive. I'm not sure how he is, but I'll let you know. Mom is super upset, so I know it's bad. Love you. I'll call soon."
A few minutes passed ... then the phone vibrated with a text. Two words.
"He's gone."
My brother died today.
My brother is gone.
Writing your way.
What does that mean?
We all have a method, a way of working. That's great—until we start looking at other writers who may be faster, or who we think are better or more talented. Maybe they have more education, a larger vocabulary, or simply more popularity.
I recently watched a short clip from an interview between Stephen King and George R.R. Martin. Both are wildly successful writers with excellent books.
In the clip, George asks King how he writes so fast.
As a writer, I love hidden meanings. As a reader, I love them even more - particularly when I stumble on them myself.
So, it was with great joy that I inserted one into one of my stories. Once someone sees it, they'll KNOW. No guessing required. It'll be that obvious once discovered.
It wasn't hard to do, but apparently it was (is!) hard to detect. It has been years now, and no one has found it. Or, if they have, they've yet to comment on it.
So my question is: have you done somet
So in my job search to enter the legal field (either as a receptionist, a paralegal, legal assistant, etc etc) I had my resume redone by some nice paralegal lady I met in a Facebook group. Only I'm a little worried that she fluffed it up a bit too much. I'm trying to get it peer-reviewed on Facebook before I start posting it to Indeed.
I've kind of taken a break the past couple of weeks from applying but I'm trying to get myself back into it. My goal is to at least get an interview before t
OOOOh I'm back. This took 15 years.
Soo quick recap, I got older and petty bettier, but I'm surthriving!
Still can't believe it's been 15 years since my last post.
I've been back every few years when I could remember my password, and I've missed friends, and acquaintances from here immensely. I'll try to limit my disappearances from now on.
Life has been lifing and I not sure if thats exactly a good thing or bad thing. Quick recap is I've not entertained any romance options
Warning: I'm about to geek out over working out. Move on if you aren't interested. LOL
I've got the habit now. Getting up early, going to the gym, and getting that handled 4-5 days a week is now something I just do. I used to be extrinsically motivated by results. I needed to SEE changes to keep doing what I needed to do. But I'm past that. It's just something I do (which helps with consistency).
But after using a new workout system called "Average to
Just the facts:
SPREZZATURA Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Sprezzatura translates to "studied nonchalance" or "effortless grace"—the art of making something difficult look completely easy and natural.
Key Aspects
Origin: Coined by Baldassare Castiglione in his 1528 book The Book of the Courtier to describe hiding hard work behind a mask of ease.
In Fashion: Means dressing with careless elegance, such as wearing an expensive suit with
That looked wrong to me but I couldn't quite place why at first. It turns out that it is incorrect. Astronomical Fall begins on the 22nd of September and Meteorological Fall begins on the 1st of September (this applies just like @Graeme says on the first day of the month that the Astronomical season date lands in wherever you live on the map).
Sprezzatura is the art of making the difficult look effortless, and in storytelling, it is the secret to creating immersive, authentic narratives. Originally a Renaissance concept coined by Baldassare Castiglione to describe perfect courtly manners, it translates to storytelling as concealing the author's hand so the reader forgets they are experiencing a constructed piece of fiction.
When a writer masters sprezzatura, the plot, dialogue, and world-building feel natural, inevitable, and c
Sprezzatura comes from the Italian verb sprezzare (meaning "to despise" or "to disdain") combined with the noun forming suffix -tura. Because it derives from sprezzare (to scorn or brush aside), the root implies a deliberate dismissal or minor disdain of effort itself—acting as though you do not care or try hard, even when you do.
The earliest recorded use of the noun sprezzatura in English according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is from 1878 in the Cornhill Magazine. The Itali